German. American. EVP @BertelsmannSt; fm. Director & CEO, German Council on Foreign Relations @DGAPev; @Harvard Co-Founder @futurediplomacy & @Harvard_Europe

Berlin, Germany
Joined November 2011
Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook retweeted
Trump is one of the greatest threats to democracy this country has seen. This is not about one isolated abuse of power; it is a pattern. Vigilance has never been more important, and the midterm elections will be among the most consequential in recent history. Get out and vote! Examples include: 1. Trying to overturn the 2020 election by pressuring state officials to change the results. 2. Promoting a scheme to replace Biden’s electors with fake Trump electors and pressuring Mike Pence to reject the lawful electoral count. 3. Repeating false claims that the election was stolen, despite recounts, audits, investigations and court rulings that found no evidence of fraud sufficient to change the result. 4. Summoning supporters to Washington before the January 6 attack and failing to act promptly to stop it. 5. Pardoning or commuting the sentences of January 6 defendants, including people convicted of crimes committed during the attack. 6. Elevating election deniers and people who supported overturning the 2020 result to positions of power. 7. Attempting to impose election rules by executive order, including documentary proof-of-citizenship requirements and restrictions on mail ballots. A federal court blocked those rules as beyond presidential authority. 8. Pressuring states to hand over sensitive voter data and suing those that refused. 9. Having the FBI seize 2020 ballots and other election records from Fulton County, based on allegations tied to claims about that election that had already been investigated and disputed. 10. Directing the Justice Department to sue Alaska to block certification of its Senate result if the Republican incumbent loses. 11. Firing independent inspectors general responsible for investigating misconduct across federal agencies; a judge later found the firings unlawful. 12. Firing or seeking to remove prosecutors, FBI officials and agents involved in investigations of Trump or the January 6 attack. 13. Weakening civil-service protections and seeking greater presidential control over independent agencies. 14. Using, or threatening to use, federal law enforcement against political opponents and institutions that challenge him. 15. Threatening civil-society organizations with politically charged investigations or retaliation. 16. Considering the use of IRS tax-exempt status to target nonprofits perceived as political enemies. 17. Dismantling civil-rights and anti-discrimination protections while rejecting remedies intended to address discrimination. 18. Attacking judges who rule against him and undermining the legitimacy of judicial checks on presidential power. 19. Weakening the officials and institutions that resisted his attempt to overturn the 2020 election. 20. Normalizing the idea that elections are legitimate only when he wins, that law enforcement should serve the president personally, and that political opponents are enemies to be punished. I am sure I have missed other examples, but this list was exhaustive (and exhausting) enough. At any rate, if I have missed anything, please add it in the comments. Taken together, these actions should ordinarily constitute grounds for impeachment. @SenateDems , @HouseDemocrats, @SenateGOP, @HouseGOP, @SenatorCollins, @lisamurkowski, @SenThomTillis, @SenBillCassidy, @SenJohnCurtis, @SenToddYoung, @SenMarkKelly, @SenatorSlotkin, @SenOssoff, @SenAmyKlobuchar, @ChrisCoons, @SenatorHick, @SenatorShaheen, @SenatorHassan
BASH: The worry is that we end up in a situation where President Trump tries to overturn the election and the result of that could be like what we saw after January 6-- BLANCHE: Stop it! You gotta stop it with that! That's crazy BASH: This is a president who has a history
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Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook retweeted
Natürlich gibt es den Druck im US-Geschäft 🇺🇸 und den Zwang, sich dort abzusichern. Aber sich mitten im Wahlkampf neben Trump auf die Bühne zu stellen und einem Autokraten ganz offen Schützenhilfe zu leisten, überschreitet jede Grenze. Da hilft kein Schönreden mehr. Während daheim 🇩🇪 bei VW die Werke wackeln und die Arbeiter die Zeche zahlen, hilft die Konzernspitze drüben einem Brandstifter aktiv im Wahlkampf. Wer so agiert, verkauft jede Haltung für den schnellen Profit. Das kann und darf nicht der Weg sein. #Audi #Volkswagen #Wirtschaftsethik
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Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook retweeted
A good day for democracy, with big wins in Serbia and Brazil. Israel could be next on Tuesday, then the US midterms the following week. The best case against the autocrats is the autocrats (and how they govern with corrupt self-promotion). trib.al/l5x6pNO
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Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook retweeted
♥️🇳🇴
WARNING: STRONG LANGUAGE President Trump escalated his invective against Norway, calling it a ‘shit house country’ and saying Norwegian immigrants are not welcome in the United States because the Nobel committee, based in the capital Oslo, has not awarded him a Peace Prize reut.rs/3U1joSt
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Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook retweeted
Love to see it. This is what that man is meant to do.
Obama: "Imagine the power duo of Abdul and Elissa. You got a Muslim man, a Jewish woman, fighting for you in the US senate. That's something, Michigan, you can be proud of!"
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Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook retweeted
This is like the epigraph for the entire Trump 2.0 presidency: ‘’I don’t give a damn. We’re making a fortune’
TRUMP on HIGH GAS PRICES: We’re making money like we’ve never made before. They’ll say: President Trump is bragging about all the money they're making while people are suffering at the pump. I don’t give a damn. We’re making a freaking fortune.
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Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook retweeted
Serbien, Brasilien, Israel, USA: Es steht nicht geschrieben, dass der Marsch in den Autoritarismus immer weitergehen muss. Die Selbstzerstörung der Demokratie ist ein umkehrbarer Trend. Es gibt keinen permanenten "vibe shift". Der Kampf gegen den IIliberalismus ist offen.
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Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook retweeted
"Everything we love is on the line" in the US election. I argue that President Trump has systematically undone the strategy that since the 19th century has made the US the world's leading country. He has eroded our sources of greatness. So what's at stake isn't just affordability or data centers or the Iran war. It's America's future: nytimes.com/2026/10/24/opini…
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Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook retweeted
Witkoff versucht in Oslo heute in einer Mischung aus Druck auf die Ukraine, Energie-Anreizen für Russland und Illusionen über plötzlich sprudelnden und bei den Mid-Terms helfenden Diesel zu verhandeln. Trump und seine Leute verstehen weder Russland, noch die Ukraine, noch Europa.
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Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook retweeted
Breaking News: Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire and the former mayor of New York City, gave Democrats $80 million in a late push to help them take the House in the midterms, his team told The New York Times.
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Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook retweeted
"One senior Ukrainian official and two Ukrainian military officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, say Hegseth is holding up supplies of Patriot missiles, which Ukraine relies on to intercept ballistic missiles." kyivindependent.com/its-sign…
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Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook retweeted
In 1994, Ukraine gave up the world’s third-largest nuclear arsenal on America’s word. This month, the president traded that word for a diesel deal with Putin. Watch what he does for Putin. It shows what he wants to do with his power over you. 👇🏼
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Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook retweeted
It speaks to the unchecked power of the American presidency that a single warped occupant of the Oval Office can transform the United States into an ally of Putin even as most Americans are outraged by his invasion of Ukraine and targeting of civilians. trib.al/86S0yX6
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Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook retweeted
Trump is the most transparent President in history. Here he is admitting (bragging) Putin has deterred him from raising pressure on Russia by threatening to help Iran. Previous presidents would have been embarrassed to have been outmaneuvered by Putin. Love this transparency.
Russia wants peace, Ukraine wants war, Russia is helping us and Ukraine is hurting us by daring to defend itself. Also, we must be nice to Russia or it will help Iran.
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Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook retweeted
The WSJ editorial board states outright: “…there needs to be a bipartisan reckoning for Mr. Trump’s budding alliance with the Kremlin against Ukraine, Europe and American interests.” wsj.com/opinion/to-russia-wi…
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Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook retweeted
“Germany is actively funding Patriot missiles from the US both via JUMPSTART and via PURL. You shouldn't forget @SecScottBessent, that we are paying you for this. As recently as June 2026, Germany spent a total of $200 million on PAC-3 missiles via JUMPSTART and another $200 million on various missiles via PURL. Total donations already exceed $1 billion.”
As US Secretary of the Treasury @SecScottBessent clearly has absolutely no idea what he is talking about and asks “Where is Germany?” when it comes to the supply of Patriot fire units and missiles to Ukraine, I thought this might be a good time for an educational tweet. Let's first talk about the supply of fire units and afterwards about the supply of missiles. Germany, Mr. Secretary, has in fact supplied more MIM-104 Patriot fire units to Ukraine than the US has, despite owning and operating only a fraction of what the US owns and operates. About half of Ukraine's MIM-104 Patriot fire units came from Bundeswehr stocks. A total of five fully equipped MIM-104 Patriot fire units were supplied from Bundeswehr stocks between 2023 and 2025 alongside a few extra launchers and most likely a spare radar unit. Germany began donating Patriot related equipment to Ukraine at the same time the US has and still does it until this day while the US has long stopped donating this to Ukraine. Let's now talk about missiles. Together with every fire unit, Germany also donated a missile package. Known donations included for example 100 missiles and 64 missiles. That's substantial, but of course, this only guaranteed the immediate operational readiness of said fire units, nothing else. We didn’t have our own production facilities and our stocks weren’t even remotely as well-stocked as those in the US. The US (led by Biden) actually kept those fire units alive. In February 2025, before the delivery of the last two MIM-104 Patriot fire units took place, before various donations via PURL and JUMPSTART took place and before Germany made several smaller missile deliveries from its own stocks, the German MoD confirmed to have delivered 328 Patriot missiles of various versions. By now the number of Patriot missiles already financed and delivered should exceed 500 easily. But what about what's happening now? Germany has shown multiple times since President Trump took office that it is leading in the organisation, funding and delivery of new ammunition for Ukraine's MIM-104 Patriot fire units. The German government has multiple times organized or tried to organize new deliveries for Ukraine. For example, in February 2026, Germany was in talks with multiple nations to find a total of 35 PAC-3 missiles for Ukraine. After weeks-long negotiations, 30+ were actually donated as a result of the German initiative. Germany was also — on the highest levels — in talks with Spain and Greece for the delivery of additional missiles. But of course, we are doing things beyond. A lot of things. As already mentioned, Germany is actively funding Patriot missiles from the US both via JUMPSTART and via PURL. You shouldn't forget @SecScottBessent, that we are paying you for this. As recently as June 2026, Germany spent a total of $200 million on PAC-3 missiles via JUMPSTART and another $200 million on various missiles via PURL. Total donations already exceed $1 billion. And now to the final and biggest part: In April 2026, Germany announced an enormous missile package for Ukraine. Over the following years, Germany will spend €3.2 billion to finance 600 PAC-2 GEM-T missiles for Ukraine's MIM-104 Patriot fire units — made in Germany by the way. So please don't ask what Germany is doing for Ukraine. We do more for Ukraine then anybody else, including the US. All you do now is getting paid billions for the bare minimum. PS: For full transparency it must be noted that multiple nations like Denmark, Lithuania and Norway above all have supported Germany financially in the delivery or re-procurement of MIM-104 Patriot fire units and missiles.
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Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook retweeted
Coalition Military Deaths by Country • United States: 2,461 • United Kingdom: 457 • Canada: 159 • France: 90 • Germany: 62 • Italy: 53 • Poland: 44 • Denmark: 44 • Australia: 41 • Spain: 35 • Georgia: 32 • Romania: 27 • Netherlands: 25 • Turkey: 15 • Czech Republic: 14 • New Zealand: 10 • Norway: 10 • Estonia: 9 • Hungary: 7 • Sweden: 5 • Latvia: 4 • Slovakia: 3 • Finland: 2 • Jordan: 2 • Portugal: 2 • South Korea: 2 • Albania: 2 • Belgium: 1 • Bulgaria: 1 • Croatia: 1 • Lithuania: 1 • Montenegro: 1
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Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook retweeted
The White House ordered the limits on Starshield, Reuters reports:🧵
NEW: The order to limit a satellite system used by Ukraine for battlefield communications and drone operations came from inside the White House, according to two US officials and a Western official briefed on the matter.
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